Space Policy

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:52:41 +0000

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy admin Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

More than half a century after the United States won the race to the moon, the White House is setting its sights on a new frontier: Mars. In a move reminiscent of the Apollo era, the administration has proposed landing Americans on the red planet by the end of 2026 — a bold initiative that has reignited national ambition and drawn comparisons to the space race of the 20th century.

At Georgia Tech, researchers are already considering the mission’s implications, from engineering challenges to international diplomacy. While the White House has framed the mission as a demonstration of American leadership, experts say its success will depend on collaboration — across disciplines, sectors, and borders.

“This is more than a space race,” said Christos Athanasiou, an assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “Mars isn’t just the next step for space exploration — it’s a stress test for everything we’ve learned about sustainability, resilience, and engineering under uncertainty.”

Engineering for the Red Planet

For Athanasiou, the Mars mission is a test of human ingenuity, creativity, and endurance. Unlike the moon, Mars is months away by spacecraft, with no quick return option. That distance introduces a host of engineering challenges that must be solved before a single boot touches Martian soil.

“Ensuring astronaut safety on such a long-duration mission requires us to understand how the Earth materials we will be using in our mission behave in extraterrestrial conditions,” he said.

In his recent TEDx talk, Athanasiou emphasized that the mission must also consider its environmental impact. Mars may be barren, but it is not immune to contamination. Athanasiou believes that strategies used for environmental remediation on Earth — such as waste recycling, habitat sustainability, and pollution control — can be adapted to protect the Martian environment.

“If we can build structures that survive Mars using recycled materials, AI, and Earth-born ingenuity, we’ll unlock entirely new ways to live — both out there and back here,” he said.

Reading the Martian Landscape

James Wray, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has spent years analyzing Mars’ surface using data from orbiters and rovers. He sees the planet as both a scientific treasure trove and a logistical puzzle.

“Mars has vast lava plains, dust storms, and steep canyons that pose real risks to human settlement,” Wray said.

But beneath the challenges lies opportunity. Mars is home to significant deposits of water ice, especially near the poles and just below the surface in some mid-latitude regions. That water could be used not only for drinking but also for producing oxygen and rocket fuel — critical resources for long-term habitation and return missions.

“The presence of water ice near the surface is a game changer. It could support life, and more importantly, it could support us,” Wray said.

He also noted that Mars’ thin atmosphere — just 1% the density of Earth’s — complicates everything from landing spacecraft to shielding astronauts from cosmic radiation. “We’ve learned a lot from robotic missions. Now it’s time to apply that knowledge to human exploration.”

Diplomacy Beyond Earth

Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, says that the Mars mission could have significant diplomatic implications. “The Mars mission has little to no bearing on space security; it has no military value,” he said. However, he noted that international cooperation could still play a valuable role in reducing the financial burden of such a costly endeavor.

Hines warned that shifting U.S. priorities from the moon to Mars could strain the international partnerships built through the Artemis program. He explained that some countries may view the Mars initiative as a distraction from the more immediate and economically promising lunar goals. Political instability in the U.S., he added, could further erode trust in its long-term commitments. “Countries may lose faith that the United States is a reliable partner to cooperate with for its lunar program if Mars seems to be the new priority,” he said.

He also pointed to existing legal frameworks like the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits sovereign claims on celestial bodies, and the Rescue Agreement, which obliges nations to assist astronauts in distress. While these agreements provide a foundation, Hines emphasized that they don’t fully address the complexities of future Mars missions.

Establishing international norms for Mars exploration, he said, will be challenging. “Norms are really hard to develop,” Hines explained, noting that countries often hesitate to commit to rules without assurance that others will do the same. Still, he suggested that Mars — with its limited material value — might offer a rare opportunity for cooperation, if nations are willing to engage in good faith.

Subtitle

Georgia Tech contributes to the national vision with research in engineering, science, and policy.

Summary sentence

As the White House accelerates plans for a 2026 crewed mission to Mars, Georgia Tech experts highlight the engineering, scientific, and diplomatic challenges that will shape the success—and sustainability—of humanity’s next giant leap.

Summary

Dateline

Wed, 06/25/2025 - 12:00

media@gatech.edu

Contact

Siobhan Rodriguez
Senior Media Relations Representative
Institute Communications

Keywords

Mars mission

White House space policy

2026 Mars landing

Georgia Tech

Christos Athanasiou

James Wray

Lincoln Hines

NASA

Artemis program

space exploration

international cooperation

Outer Space Treaty

space diplomacy

space security

lunar vs. Mars priorities

U.S.–China space relations

environmental impact on Mars

human spaceflight

Mars geology

Space Policy

go-researchnews

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Earth and Environment

Science and Technology

Borowitz’s Book Published by MIT Press

admin — Mon, 19 May 2025 13:38:51 +0000

Borowitz’s Book Published by MIT Press admin Mon, 05/19/2025 - 09:38

Mariel Borowitz, assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has written a book titled, Open Space: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data. The book was published by MIT Press.

Understanding and addressing environmental challenges, including climate change, requires access to accurate data from many sources. In some cases, government agencies that operate Earth observing satellites have been leaders in this regard — making their data freely available to all users. In fact, some of the earliest references to “open data” can be traced back to early government satellite projects. However, many governments continue to restrict access to their unclassified Earth observing satellite data, and even those that now make their data freely available did not always do so. This book examines how government agencies developed data sharing policies for their Earth observation satellites and how these data sharing policies changed over time. The insights from this study can help to improve international sharing of data critical for understanding environmental challenges and provide insight into the open data movement more broadly.

The book starts with a thorough review of the literature on data sharing and presents a practical model of data sharing policy development, looking at the role of the actors involved (agency officials, legislative officials, executive branch officials, and non-governmental organizations) and at the importance of the attributes of the data itself (economic, security, normative, and technical).

The book includes case studies of both the World Meterological Organization (WMO) and the Group on Earth Obersvations (GEO), providing some historical and international context in which data sharing decisions have been made. Borowitz then presents agency-level historical case studies looking at data sharing policy development in the space and meteorological agencies in the United States, Europe, and Japan (i.e. NASA, NOAA, USGS, DoD, ESA, EUMETSAT, JAXA, and JMA) as well as summaries of data sharing policy developments in the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). There is an appendix that discusses the data sharing policies of every nation that has ever owned an Earth observation satellite.

The final section discusses why some agencies have made their satellite data openly available while others haven’t and offers some practical recommendations on how international data sharing could be improved. Borowitz also specifically addresses the economics of data, commercial remote sensing, and the potential for public private partnerships, as well as challenges related to big data and other evolving technologies.

Borowitz’s research focuses on international space policy issues, primarily international cooperation in Earth observing satellites, and satellite data sharing policies. In the Spring, Borowitz will be teaching a class with Michael Salomone, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, on Modeling, Simulation, and Military Gaming.

Summary sentence

Mariel Borowitz, assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has written a book titled, Open Space: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data.

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 12/21/2017 - 12:00

Contact

Jessica Palacios

Administrative Professional II

jessica.palacios@inta.gatech.edu

Associated importer

Keywords

Space Policy

space

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts; Sam Nunn School of International Affairs

Borowitz Takes Her Space Expertise to Washington

admin — Mon, 19 May 2025 13:38:51 +0000

Borowitz Takes Her Space Expertise to Washington admin Mon, 05/19/2025 - 09:38

Mariel Borowitz, space policy expert in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has taken her expertise to Washington, where she serves part-time as the director of international space situational awareness engagement in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce is developing a civil space situational awareness system — the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) — that could go live as soon as late 2024. Borowitz is helping to coordinate U.S. efforts with parallel activities in other nations.

“I believe that productive international coordination is essential for space situational awareness — all space actors are operating in the same physical space, and we need to ensure that we have a shared understanding of where objects are in space and when those objects are in danger of colliding. We need to communicate quickly and effectively to address those risks,” she said.

Borowitz’s invitation to join NOAA followed 2022 testimony before a Congressional committee, where she argued that moving the space situational awareness mission to a civil agency created opportunities for increased transparency and openness, improved international cooperation, and better engagement with the commercial and academic sectors.

Space situational awareness involves monitoring the locations of satellites and debris, determining where these objects are likely to be in the future, and warning satellite and spacecraft operators of potential collisions. 

While the U.S. Department of Defense has traditionally taken the global lead in this role, other nations and private companies have begun their own tracking efforts. Discussions on whether the military should hand the role to a civil agency started under the Obama administration. The Trump administration moved forward with a plan that called for the transition of traffic coordination oversight to a civil agency and chose the Department of Commerce. The Biden administration has been executing this transition with the development of TraCSS.

The TraCSS system will provide basic data, including collision warnings, using data from government and private sources. Private operators will be able to offer more sophisticated services to supplement the Commerce system.

Borowitz, a leading space policy scholar, has studied the idea extensively. In 2019, she published a paper, “Strategic Implications of the Proliferation of Space Situational Awareness Technology and Information,” in which she argued that increased data sharing and transparency would help to promote space safety and sustainability.

Two years later, she published “Legal Considerations and Future Options for Space Situational Awareness,” followed in 2022 by “Examining the Growth of the Global Space Situational Awareness Sector- A Network Analysis Approach.”

Borowitz is no stranger to working with the federal government on space policy. She was a policy analyst for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate from 2016 to 2018. She will work with the Commerce Department part-time for two years. In the meantime, she will spend half of her week working on research and other Georgia Tech duties.

“I’m excited to work with colleagues in the United States and around the world to help advance this effort and build a system that ensures space remains safe and sustainable now and in the future,” Borowitz said.

Borowitz is not the only Georgia Tech faculty member working on the project. The project’s chief engineer is Sandra “Sandy” Magnus, Ph.D. MSE 1996, a professor of the practice with joint appointments in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Nunn School.

Summary sentence

She is working with a Department of Commerce team working to transition tracking of satellites and debris to civilian from military control.

Summary

She is working with a Department of Commerce team working to transition tracking of satellites and debris to civilian from military control.

Dateline

Mon, 12/18/2023 - 12:00

Contact

Michael Pearson
Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Associated importer

Keywords

Space Policy

NOAA

Mercury ID

671629

Source updated

Mon, 12/18/2023 - 12:38

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Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

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